Creation of the Beleren Typeface
Following right on the heels of completing a typeface for their newest trading card game, Kaijudo®, the Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast commissioned me to create a bespoke typeface to better serve the brand of their flagship product Magic: The Gathering® in late 2012. Magic: the Gathering is the first trading card game produced and today is played by more than twelve million people worldwide. Since the inception of Magic in 1993, off-the-shelf typefaces were used for the trading cards. Matt Cavotta, the Senior Creative Director for Magic saw an opportunity to bring the spirit of the game to the typography on the cards, packaging, online, and elsewhere. I visited the Wizards offices to jump-start the creative process and knew I was in the right place when I discovered by chance that they were already planning to use one of my retail typefaces, Eulipia for the Modern Masters logo (they weren’t aware it was one of mine). In this age of working remotely using email, Skype and such, I believe it is always easier to work together when you’ve actually met your clients and collaborators in person. Cavotta and I immediately connected on a creative level. He brought a wealth of talent, knowledge and experience with the game to bear on the aesthetic development of the typeface.
Humble beginnings: Initial ideas sketched on a whiteboard during the kickoff meeting.
The design had to reflect the many facets of Magic but also make it edgier and propel it forward. There was a shared thought among us that it should look a little dangerous and a phrase jokingly bandied about during the early phase of development was “Weaponize those letters!”
Explorations from Delve’s sketchbook done soon after the meeting.
Throughout the process every detail in glyph construction was scrutinized and labored over with multiple variations and iterations (I can’t recall how many lower case t’s I did) to find optimal solutions that met the needs of this unique game. When I hit upon the asymmetric shape treatment of the bracketed serifs—one curved, one wedge—it was a turning point for the design. Cavotta recognized the importance of that juxtaposition and how that feature expressed in a simple way, the nature of Magic and its otherworldliness. The typeface had to bring some zing to display settings without sacrificing legibility and potentially hampering gameplay. For this purpose, swash versions and other glyph variants with differing features were included to be applied via OpenType features such as contextual alternates. That built-in flexibility empowers the designers for Magic with better control over details in the typography. They can turn the volume up to eleven to intensify the style on an as-needed basis for display sizes or at their discretion, reign it in to keep it clean and simple for text sizes.
Red = Dead: Some design feedback provided by the Magic creative team.
Somewhere along the way, the typeface was named after a main character in the game, Jace Beleren a planeswalker. Under continued guidance from Cavotta, the design experience and critical eye(s) of Lisa Hanson, Nathan Greene and Robert Drawbaugh were brought in on the project to assist with the creation of additional weights and styles. They provided invaluable feedback and diligently kept production on track.
The Beleren type family as of January 2015.
With the launch of Magic 2015 – Duels of the Planeswalkers in July 2014, the Beleren typeface was officially placed into service as the primary display type for Magic 2015. Beleren can now be seen on the game cards, in apps, product packaging and elsewhere. The Beleren type family is comprised of nine fonts in total. Its fantastical nature integrates perfectly with the stunning, highly original art that is a perennial signature of Magic: The Gathering. The typeface performs reliably both onscreen and in print, helping to unify the Magic brand in a variety of applications.
Magic 2015 products featuring the new Beleren typeface.
A card with Beleren in use.
Beleren is the result of a successful creative collaboration between many talented and smart people. My gratitude goes to Wizards for the opportunity to work with them in creating this fabulous typeface. Special thanks goes to (in no particular order): Erin Lester, Ryan Rosenberg, Steve Nashem, Erik VanHorn, Jesse Raymond, Tom Jenkot and many others at Wizards who had a hand in this great project.
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